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Yesterday at Stoney Lonesome OHV Park I crossed a mud puddle. It wasn't the first or last of the day, there were many.

It wasn't deep. It wasn't memorable.

Thirty seconds up the trail though, I blipped the throttle to clear a berm, and WHOA NELLY HERE WE GO - the throttle was stuck !

I wish I could say it was instinct that made the clutch be pulled and the kill button pressed, but it wasn't. It was about eternity + three years before it finally happened and the bike died. Yikes and wowzers that **** wasn't fun at all. I was in 3rd or 4th, moving pretty well (i'm NOT fast!) and she just came up and kept going.

Through the terrain I wasn't expecting to wheelie through. Into a small ditch, and finally stopped. I pulled the throttle 3-4 times and flooded the carb (layed over on it's side) several times to lubricate it with fuel and hopefully wash away the water/muck that stuck the slide open.

After a few very tentative starts with my finger on the kill button, I rode the rest of the way back to the truck, with my finger on the clutch lever being mindful of water crossings.

I think it's time to put the snorkle back on the airbox lid. Or stop riding through water <<<< NOT going to happen ;-)

Sounds exciting. Jaguar describes a similar experience that cost him a race. I've been racing hare scrambles on my '89 and sometimes have to ride through some deep water and mud. I modified my airbox lid to (hopefully) direct water and mud away from the filter while still allowing much better flow than stock.
Hopefully none of the grit found its way into your cylinder. Yuck.

A lot of times the water is introduced through the cable. Check to see if there's a rack in the boot at the carb.
I have had this happen to me as well and found the boot had a crack. I replaced the cable and it hasn't happened since.

yeah man, try that while going over jumps at the motocross track and you'll know what scary is.
After that I made my own modified snorkel and made it so any muddy water that gets in goes on top of a "slide" and then dumps into the airbox past the filter.

Jaguar wrote:yeah man, try that while going over jumps at the motocross track and you'll know what scary is.
After that I made my own modified snorkel and made it so any muddy water that gets in goes on top of a "slide" and then dumps into the airbox past the filter.

Mine happened going through a long section of whoops, in the trails ......You bet I got that shut down

I have to doubt that water / mud from a puddle made it through the airbox and caused your throttle to hang at WOT. Unless you have no air filter, or one that isn't oiled or has holes in it. Check the slide, throttle cable, and boot.

you can doubt all you want but I immediately pulled off the track and then pulled the slide out and sure enough there was particles of dirt on it.
What happened was muddy water splashed up onto the airbox lid and then without the snorkel it just dropped right onto the filter and got sucked into the engine. Filter oil captures dry dirt particles only, not wet ones.

6 Riders wrote:A lot of times the water is introduced through the cable. Check to see if there's a rack in the boot at the carb.
I have had this happen to me as well and found the boot had a crack. I replaced the cable and it hasn't happened since.

i'll do that !

the filter had the normal surface dust/debris that comes with riding in the woods, but at the bottom there was dark red mud hanging on to it, and partially soaked into the filter. i'm fairly certain it was a freak incident from just-right splashes making their way into the airbox, while the bike was gyrating everywhere on the next hill climb.

either way, i'm checking it out :)

Julien D wrote:I have to doubt that water / mud from a puddle made it through the airbox and caused your throttle to hang at WOT. Unless you have no air filter, or one that isn't oiled or has holes in it. Check the slide, throttle cable, and boot.

it happened once before, for just a moment, not long enough to even hit the kill switch, over rough terrain. honestly i can't remember if there was puddle right before or not.

this time (with the mud puddle) i could feel resistance / crunchiness in the throttle action though- i'm fairly certain is was mud/muck, either introduced through the throttle cable like ya'll mentioned or just right through the filter.

here is the bottom of the filter, with it's patch-o-mud still showing before i doused it with premix to clean it out:

this was one of the few times I wasn't running a pair of panty-hose over the airbox lid... i will be in the future again :D

nothing like a photo to prove a point